a) Business Formation: First & foremost layer, would be choosing the appropriate form of business, such as sole proprietorship or one-person company (OPC) or partnership, limited liability partnership or private limited company or public limited company. Choosing right of business structure depending upon the type of business operations and business aspirations is very helpful. Opting for limited liability form of business structure protects the entrepreneur from risk of losing or affecting the personal properties in case of business loss as limited lability form business distinguishes the personal properties and business.

b) Contracts:As prudent business man it is necessary to have clearly defined terms and conditions for any and all business transactions in writing prior consumption of the business to avoid unnecessary litigations via well drafted agreements while transacting with your customer, vendor, employee or any of partner or co-founder.

c) Intellectual property Rights (IPR): Identifying and protecting the IPRs not only helps the business to grow but also protect the business against third party IPR infringement suits and avoids unnecessary costly litigations. Trade secret/s add an addition layer of protection to the business and provides competitive edge.

d)Compliances: Know which laws are appliable to you based on the type of business you do.So that your business runs smoothly without any penalty and fear of legal actions from the govt or regulatory authorities against business.

e) Data Protection: It’s crucial layerof law in this era of digitisation as data breach is of the main issue most of organisation encounter. So is it vital to protect your business data as well as your clients data by classifying the data, imbedding the security measures in line with all applicable laws.

f) Insurance: In order to protect the business against the losses due to events that may occur during the normal course of business as well as unforeseen events since risks and challenges are inherent in the business. Various types of business insurance policies are available which focus on covering assets and revenue, liabilities, and personnel. For instance, general liability insurance to pay lawsuits which claims that your business has caused bodily injury or property damage or professional indemnity/liability which protects your business from legal action taken against the business if someone suffers a loss after following your professional advice or as a result of receiving your service or against property damage or loss to buildings or accidental damage.

II) Know All the Applicable Laws to Your Business: It is imperative for all the starts and businesses to know the laws that are applicable to their businesses. Diversified laws and regulations govern each business based on its industry sector, type of business entity and number of people of employed and list goes on. Knowing & following the laws not only helps to be compliant but also protect each business. Compliant businesses gain the reputation among the consumer that helps business to grow.

III) Follow Law beyond Checklist: Being startup it is more crucial that from time to time to it make sure know what are the applicable laws to its businesses as business is new and nascent which usually lacks in resources and budget to do this job. Sometimes it is time-consuming and cumbersome that’s make more complicated. Along with this lot of startups in early days will be chaotic atmosphere as to the exactly application of laws to them due multiple reasons like lack awareness, short of time, lack of expert resources, legal awareness many times under appreciated discipline in business folks.

Taking professional help from the day one of the business is indispensable. Importantly right professional support from time to time is must. Getting checklist of applicable laws without fully knowing intricacies of it is like half baked and cannot accord complete protection to business against legal risks and compliance issues. Knowing basic regulations as what needs to be and how that needs to be done in day today affairs of the business paves the way for business sustainability and can be helpful to grow.

Like businesses laws are also not static considering the changing needs of the society so to tune to the laws from time to time it is essential get trained from the right professionals on changing / changed aspects. Once you know laws following is must.

IV) Ignore of Laws is Not Excuse: Compliance of law is not option but a mandate. Each business whether small or big including startups has follow the law of the land. If you are Indian startup then you should all applicable Indian laws to your business. When businesses are growing at that it is quite common be chaotic due to lack of time, lack of expertise and so on. Thereby startup may be unawares as to what it is suppose to follow.

But under law ignorance is not excuse non-compliance & violation of law and regulations will definitely have serious impact on startup business. Considering the type of violation of law business has pay, either in the form of penalty or punishment or both. In addition, loss of reputation and loss of credibility among the consumers in marker.  Sometimes noncompliance leads the startup to shut the business completely.

V) Takeaways: Business is risky venture but always take the limited risks & not unlimited. Try and make risks reduced to the maximum extent possible. Following different layers of law discussed above are handy to reduce risks under law while starting the new business. Avoid chaotic approaches, ignorance of laws.